Jan. & Feb. summary

My 2010 New Years Resolution was to write more often for my blog.... and then life got in the way. I apologize and will try to play catch up for you guys so you know what Paul and I have been doing.

A quick summary:
- I worked most of January on my first big graphic design freelance project. I designed the camp guide for the Y down here. It took a long time, but it turned out great and they were very pleased. Since then I have done smaller projects for them and I have a good working relationship with the marketing director. I've been excited to see how God has provided work for me that I enjoy when I wasn't even looking for it! It is a reminder that He will continue to provide for all of my needs. Not only has this been a huge help financially but it has been an encouragement for me as it keeps me busy and I get to keep my creative skills up to date.

- I have been busy learning to be a better house wife. I am enjoying keeping my house really clean and getting organized (something Paul and I are not the most gifted at). By the time we moved into our house (we lived with Paul's parents for the first 8 months living here) we didn't have any move in time because we had already immersed ourselves into our ministry here. With our busy ministry schedule we never really developed a organizational system and we never really unpacked. So, although we have been here for over a year, I have been busy still unpacking, organizing and finishing house projects. Paul just finished putting up all the quarter round down in our house. He taught himself to do it and it looks so great (I was so impressed)!

I have been busy filling in nail holes, taping and painting. I still have a lot to do because its time consuming and tedious. But it's amazing what a little piece of wood can do to the look of a room. It looks finished! I am also looking to organize our bedroom and make that a nice place to be. This has been the last room to work on because no one sees it but us. But it is driving us nuts now and so it's time! I have been looking for the perfect curtains and curtain rods and hope to get something soon because the street lights are so bright at night and it's hard to get a good night sleep.

- Paul and I are training for a 10k and an 8k at the end of March. So if anyone has any suggestions let us know. This has been motivation for both of us to get in shape. The problem is that I'm hungry more often and then I eat junk food. So that's bad. I have checked out a bunch of books from the library and trying to cook better. This has been fun and educational for me. I am learning all about different kinds of oils and flowers and the health benefits of different kinds of foods. I just bought my first unbleached all purpose flower. I want to get to the point where I plan my meals ahead of time and I can have a veggie with each meal. I am finding that if I don't plan, my meals are unbalanced... they only have meat.

- As always, we've been busy with youth group stuff. We had our 2nd annual Valentine's Girls Night Out. The youth group guys got dressed up, decorated the church fellowship hall and made the girls a fancy dinner. I was encouraged to see that our entire youth group attended and brought lots of friends. We had over 50 kids attend. I also was impressed with myself because I had to buy all the food with a very small budget that I didn't think was possible ($100) but I did it for only $50! We had spiral ham, rolls, salad, rice, potatoes, and cookies for dessert. We also had the college group over to our house for Valentine's day for lunch

- Paul took me to the zoo in Columbia SC for our Valentine's day celebration. It was a sunny and somewhat warm day and we enjoyed just being away and just having it be us. We enjoyed having the sun shine on us as we watched the elephants and other animals as we just talked and hung out.

- We have also been busy with all day game days, Film and Theology nights with the college group, random people stopping by and hanging out, volleyball every Tuesday nights at the local Y and just being available to minister to people whenever God gives us the opportunity.

- Pray that we would continue to have the energy to serve and love those around us and that we would not fall into discouragement which can happen when you give and give and don't see "results" on our time schedule. And praise God for what he is doing. He is doing great things in our youth group and through our Tuesday night volleyball games.